These private air-raid shelters were Anderson shelters, constructed of sheets of corrugated galvanised iron covered in earth.
WW2: How did an elephant beat the Belfast Blitz? - BBC Teach Victory for the Royal Air Forces (RAFs) Fighter Command blocked this possibility and, in fact, created the conditions for Britains survival and the eventual destruction of the Third Reich. 2.
Oakland plans to unleash 'pothole blitz' to fix notorious street damage Beginning in September 1940, the Blitz was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the Luftwaffe against British cities. Raids between February and May pounded Plymouth, Portsmouth, Bristol, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Hull in England; Swansea in Wales; Belfast in Northern Ireland; and Clydeside in Scotland. Fewer than 4,000 women and children were evacuated. While the balloons themselves were an obvious deterrent, they were anchored to the ground by steel tethers that were strong enough to damage or destroy any aircraft that flew into them. Death should be dignified, peaceful; Hitler had made even death grotesque. Both planes quickly proved their mettle against German bombers, and Germanys best fighter, the Bf 109, was of limited use as an escort due to its relatively short operating range. Liverpool, for example, protected by 100 guns.
Belfast Blitz: Remembering the ordinary people who lost their lives Video, 00:01:38At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire, Australia's 'biggest drug bust' nets $700m of cocaine. 7. [19], 220,000 people fled from the city. He successfully busied himself with the task of making Northern Ireland a major supplier of food to Britain in her time of need.[5].
There wasn't enough room for Anna or Billy, so they sheltered elsewhere, a twist of fate that would save their lives. Belfast was the birthplace of the RMS Titanic, the world' most famous ship which, when it was constructed in the early 1900s, was longer than the height of the world's tallest building at 882 feet and six inches in length. The attack on Coventry was particularly destructive. [4], The Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid. At the beginning of the Blitz, British ack ack gunners struggled to inflict meaningful damage on German bombers, but later developments in radar guidance greatly improved the effectiveness of both antiaircraft artillery and searchlights. Sometimes they were trying establish a blockade by destroying shipping and port facilities, sometimes they were directly attacking Fighter Command ground installations, sometimes they were targeting aircraft factories, and sometimes they were attempting to engage Fighter Command in the skies. Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow.. The Belfast Blitzconsisted of four German air raids on strategic targets in the city of Belfastin Northern Ireland, in April and May 1941 during World War II, causing high casualties.
Belfast Blitz - Wikipedia No significant cut was made in necessary social services, and public and private premises, except when irreparably damaged, were repaired as speedily as possible. Your donations help keep MHN afloat. Fortunately, the railway telegraphy link between Belfast and Dublin was still operational. The period of the next moon from say the 7th to the 16th of April may well bring our turn." His report concluded with: "a second Belfast would be too horrible to contemplate". Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland . The success of Mickeys Shelter was another factor that urged the government to improve existing deep shelters and to create new ones. [citation needed], There was a second massive air raid on Belfast on Sunday 45 May 1941, three weeks after that of Easter Tuesday.
29 interesting facts about Belfast you never knew - BeeLoved City NI WW2 veterans honoured by France.
Blitz, The - Kids | Britannica Kids | Homework Help The first attack was against the city's waterworks, which had been attacked in the previous raid. More than 1,000 people were killed, and the damage was more widespread than on any previous occasion. The first was on the night of 7-8 April 1941, a small attack which probably took place only to test Belfast's defences. Neighbouring residential areas were also hit. The Blitz began at around 4 pm on September 7, 1940, when German bomber planes first appeared over London. From their photographs, they identified suitable targets: There had been a number of small bombings, probably by planes that missed their targets over the River Clyde in Glasgow or the cities of the northwest of England. Initially it was thought that the Germans had mistaken this reservoir for the harbour and shipyards, where many ships, including HMS Ark Royal were being repaired. Corrections? Please select which sections you would like to print: Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Video, 00:02:54, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go Belfast is as worthy a target as Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol or Glasgow." sprang into action, and Londoners, while maintaining the work, business, and efficiency of their city, displayed remarkable fortitude. NI WW2 veterans honoured by France. "But there is no such equivalent in Belfast. During the whole period, although the citys operation was disrupted in ways that were sometimes serious, no essential service was more than temporarily impaired. Video, 00:02:54Living through the London Blitz, At least 17 dead in Jakarta fuel storage depot fire. The telegram was sent at 4:35am,[citation needed] asking the Irish Taoiseach, amon de Valera for assistance. Despite the military and industrial importance of the city, the Luftwaffe described the defences asweak, scanty, insufficient. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. The district of Belfast has an area of 44 square miles (115 square km). He believed that this was being done already but it was inevitable that a certain number of civilian lives should be lost in the course of heavy bombing from the air". [13] However at the time Lord Craigavon, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921, said: "Ulster is ready when we get the word and always will be." Over 150 people died in what became known as the 'Fire Blitz'. [18], Over 900 people died, 1,500 people were injured, 400 of them seriously. He believed that key targets identified across the city were hit. IWM C 5424 1. That night almost 300 people, many from the Protestant Shankill area, took refuge in the Clonard Monastery in the Catholic Falls Road. Few children had been successfully evacuated. As many as 5,000 people had packed into this network of underground tunnels, which was dangerously overcrowded, dirty, and dark. Richard Dawson Bates was the Home Affairs Minister. 55,000 houses were damaged leaving 100,000 temporarily homeless. Compared to other cities, Belfast was virtually undefended. 2023 BBC. Accounts differ as to when flares were dropped to light up the city. Video, 00:00:36Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. By the middle of December it had reached nearly 1,700,000 (adjusted for inflation, this was the equivalent of roughly 100 million in 2020). [9], War materials and food were sent by sea from Belfast to Great Britain, some under the protection of the neutral Irish tricolour. Dissatisfaction with public shelters also led to another notable development in the East EndMickeys Shelter. At the time of the first attack in April 1941, there were no operational searchlights, too few anti-aircraft batteries and scarcely enough public air raid shelters for a quarter of the population. After his optician business was destroyed by a bomb, Mickey Davies led an effort to organize the Spitalfield Shelter. [26], Initial German radio broadcasts celebrated the raid. The shipyard was among the largest in the world, producing merchant vessels and military shipping. The attacks were authorized by Germany's chancellor, Adolf Hitler, after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. After the passing of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, it became the seat of the government of Northern Ireland. I was definitely one of the first over the target and as I flew in there was no great defence because there were not a great many aircraft over the target at that point, recalled Becker. Published: September 7, 2020 at 12:00 pm. He stated that "he would once more tell his government how he felt about the matter and he would ask them to confine the operations to military objectives as far as it was humanly possible. But the authorities were afraid that bombs might not be the. It is situated at on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. "Through resources such as the Public Records Office and ancestry and genealogy websites I managed to get about 100 photos - which is about one tenth of the victims," he says. [17] A stray bomber attacked Derry, killing 15. wardens, and members of the Home Guard drilling in the parks, life went on much as usual. [12], There was little preparation for the conflict with Germany. Lecturer of History, Queens University, Belfast, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Belfast_Blitz&oldid=1136721396, During the war years, Belfast shipyards built or converted over 3,000 navy vessels, repaired more than 22,000 others and launched over half a million tons of merchant shipping over 140. Major O'Sullivan reported that "In the heavily 'blitzed' areas people ran panic-stricken into the streets and made for the open country. Davies also set up medical stations and persuaded off-duty medical personnel to treat the sick and wounded. 2. Men from the South worked with men from the North in the universal cause of the relief of suffering. Up Next. Updates? The first deliberate raid took place on the night of 7 April. 2023 BBC. Belfast Blitz: Marking the lost lives 80 years on A force of 180 bombers dropped 750 bombs - including 203 tonnes of high explosives - and 29,000 incendiaries over a five-hour period. Video, 00:01:41NI WW2 veterans honoured by France, The Spitfire turns 80. Belfast was ill-prepared for the blitz. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. In the subsequent years, this lack of preparation has often dominated the discussion about the Belfast Blitz, but a new project led by Alan Freeburn from the Northern Ireland War Memorial aims to shift the focus back to the ordinary men, women and children who lost their lives. Death had to a certain extent been made decent. Video, 00:00:36, Tears of relief after man found in Amazon jungle. The sense of relative calm was abruptly shattered in the first week of September 1940, when the war came to London in earnest. [citation needed], Other writers, such as Tony Gray in The Lost Years state that the Germans did follow their radio guidance beams. Three vessels nearing completion at Harland and Wolff's were hit as was its power station. THE BELFAST BLITZ was a series of four air raids over Northern Ireland during the spring of 1941. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. There are other diarists and narratives. The couple, who ran a children's home, stayed with Anna's parents, William and Harriette Denby, and her sisters, Dot and Isa, at Evelyn Gardens, off the Cavehill Road, in the north of the city. By 1940, Short and Harland could shelter its entire workforce and Harland and Wolff had provision to shelter 16,000 workers. Wherever Churchill is hiding his war material we will go. This part of Belfast was the only one required to provide air raid shelters for workers. Nearby residential areas in east Belfast were also hit when "203 metric tonnes of high explosive bombs, 80 land mines attached to parachutes, and 800 firebomb canisters containing 96,000 incendiary bombs"[16] were dropped. His death (along with preceding ill-health) came at a bad time and arguably inadvertently caused a leadership vacuum. The attacks by both V1's and V2's only ended as the Allies advanced up through Western Europe . Many "arrived in Fermanagh having nothing with them only night shirts". He was asked, in the N.I. Video, 00:01:03One-minute World News, Isabel Oakeshott: Why I leaked Hancock's messages. In the course of four Luftwaffe attacks on the nights of 7-8 April, 15-16 April, 4-5 May and 5-6 May 1941, lasting ten hours in total, 1,100 people died, over 56,000 houses in the city were damaged (53 per cent of its entire housing stock), roughly 100,000 made temporarily homeless and 20 million damage was caused to property at wartime values.